Disposable fog lens for lamps

ABSTRACT

A disposable fog lens for automobile head lamps is constituted by a circular disc of flexible transparent or translucent sheet material, tinted in amber and backed by a tacky-coated, transparent flexible mounting sheet, by which the tinted disc area is removably held peripherally over a head lamp, as at the surrounding bezel of the latter. A protective masking sheet of flexible foil covers the entire area of the unit on the side of the disc opposite the mounting sheet, being stripped from them when the device is removably applied to the lamp.

United States Patent [72] Inventor Alvin H.1erkiss 21705 Snow, Dearborn, Mich. 48124 [21] AppLNo. 767,372 [22] Filed Oct. 14, 1968 [45] Patented Sept. 28, 1971 [54] DISPOSABLE FOG LENS FOR LAMPS 1 Claim, 4 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S.Cl 240/46.19, 161/6,161/40,161/408,161/409,161/4l0, 240/41.4, 240/46.57 51 lm.c| ..F21v 17 04, F21v 9/00, F21v 13/04 [50] FieldofScarch 161/],6, 40, 213, 221, 408410; 240146.57, 46.59, 41.4 R, 46.19

[56] ReferencesCited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,259,737 7/1966 Germann 240/46.57 3,312,814 4/1967 Reading 240/46.57 3,334,220 8/1967 Komiske..... 240/46.57 3,350,557 10/1967 Szymanski 240/46.57

Kohl 240/41.4 X Reading 240146.57

Jones 240/41.4 X Lightfoot... 240/46.59 Smally 240/46.59 Rosenberg. 240/46.59 Petty 1 32/73 Palmquist 88/82 Primary Examiner-Harold Ansher Attorney-Whittemore, Hulbert & Belknap the lamp.

DISPOSABLE FOG LENS FOR LAMPS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The improved antifog lens device or unit is intended for wide distribution and sale through service stations, department stores, and the like, or to be automatic machine-vended, to automobile owners for manual application in foggy or inclement weather to the headlights of their auto. It is intended that the units may also be sold in stacks, appropriately packaged, for storage in the glove compartment or trunk of the car for ready access when needed. Applications of the principle of the invention to fields other than head lamps are also contemplated.

2. Description of the Prior Art The most pertinent patent references of which I am aware are Horsey, U.S. Pat. No. 1,573,835 of Feb. 23, 1926; Romanik, U.S. Pat. No. 2,153,100 of Apr. 4, 1939, Rosenberg, U.S. Pat. No. 2,297,168 of Sept. 29, 1942; and Bailey, U.S. Pat. No. 2,791,680 of May 7, 1957. However, each of these arrangements has in my opinion, certain drawbacks of a practical nature, of the sort referred to in the summary.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention affords an extremely inexpensive, throwaway or disposable fog lens unit for the indicated purpose, which the user may quickly and easily apply to his head lamps in foggy weather, without resort to any type of mounting tool, and which requires no special means to hold it to the lamp, in the form of clips, screw and bracket means, nor any special fastening operation at all. As applied to the lamp, the lens unit preserves full road illumination, to an extent limited only by the glare-suppressing coloration of the lens which is unavoidable.

,In regard to the manufacture of the improved unit, it involves only three parts which are readily stamped from the respective sheet materials of which they are constituted, namely, a square or rectangular sheet treated by the application of tacky, synthetic rubber-type coating, which causes adhesion thereto of the second component, i.e., an antiglare disc sheet, either transparent or translucent, in the desired low wavelength tint, which is amber in most instances. The third sheet component is a suitable flexible metallic foil whose shape and area correspond to the tacky-coated sheet, this being a protective masking sheet which adheres to the tacky area surrounding the tinted disc; however, its tensile strength is sufficiently great that it may readily be stripped manually from the coated securing sheet when it is desired to apply the lens unit to a lamp. By the same token, the securing sheet may readily be stripped away from the lamp, as at the bezel of the latter to which it normally adheres, when the occasion for use of the unit has ended.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the improved disposable unit or device of the invention, showing the protective or masking sheet as being partially stripped or peeled away from the remainder of the unit prior to adherent application to a head lamp;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary view in side elevation, partially broken away, of the unit as applied over the lens area of a head lamp, the unit per se being shown in vertical section on a diameter of the lamp;

FIG. 3 is a front elevational view of the applied unit, the latter being partially broken away to show the lamp lens and bezel therebehind; and

FIG. 4 is a view in diametral cross section through the device, as sold and prior to use.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The improved disposable antifog lens unit of the invention, as generally designated in FIG. 1 by the reference numeral 10,

is intended for removable application to an automobile head lamp 12, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, which may be any one of a number of known types, and regardless of the lateness of their particular designs, Typically, such a lamp will comprise a polished parabolic reflector l3 appropriately fastened behind a fixed mounting ring 14 which holds the glass lamp lens 15, proper, in place, and behind a suitable bezel 16 which is removably held in usual fashion in relation to the reminder of the lamp structure. It will be appreciated from what follows that the particular configuration and size of the bezel 16 and lamp lens 15 are of no particular consequence, insofar as the utility of unit 10 is concerned, since the sheet panel components of the latter are of sufficient area to accommodat any presently employed design of lamp.

As illustrated best in FIG. 1, the unit 10 comprises a mounting sheet 18 which is shown as being of square outline. It is by definite preference transparent and colorless, being constituted of a suitable gauge Cellophane stock or other appropriate synthetic sheeting. Sheet 18 is continuous in its rectangular outline, and is precoated through its entire area, including a central circular portion surrounded by a border portion 19, with a suitable rubberor resin-base adhesive material of a known pressure-sensitive type, as indicated by stippling in FIG. 1. In a known manner, this adhesive is predried to partially set and render it sufi'iciently tacky to adhere under light manual pressure to a metallic or other sheet surface with sufficient grip to hold it in place, yet will quite readily strip away therefrom.

Such a surface is represented by a surface of the second component of unit 10, this being a circular disc element or panel 20 which filters the lamp beam for the antiglare action of the unit. Disc 20 is stamped out of a suitable flexible sheet material, preferably treated or plain Cellophane or similar readily available and inexpensive sheet stock material; and whether transparent or translucent, the disc panel 20 is tinted for its function in a low wavelength color, typically amber.

The diameter of antiglare disc 20 is substantially less than the side-to-side dimensions of mounting sheet 18, leaving the substantial annular border area portion 19 about disc 20 at which its tacky coating is exposed; and the adhesive inwardly of the border area 19 strongly binds disc 20 to the mounting sheet 18. The transparency of the latter preserves the light transmissivity of disc 20.

The third component of the device or unit 10 is a protective or masking sheet 22 opaque to light. It is of the same size and area as sheet 18, and is preferably of an appropriate flexible metallic foil which will adhere to the border area or portion 19 of sheet 18 when pressed upon the latter in the manufacture of device 10. The inner area of sheet 22 which superposes over the antifog disc sheet 20 of course remains unadhered to the latter; and the exposed side of sheet 22 may be imprinted with promotional text matter or illustration, as desired.

The foil material of sheet 22 is chosen of such tensile strength, many grades being available, that it will firmly adhere to sheet 18, but may be quite readily peeled away from the border zone of mounting sheet 18, in the manner illustrated in FIG. 1. As mentioned before, packages of the lens units 10 may be sold in many distributional guises, individually or packaged in multiple, at extremely low cost, enabling a user to carry a number thereof for emergency use anywhere or anytime.

In use, the lamp lens 15 is first wiped dry of water. The masking sheet 22 is stripped away from disc 20 and sheet 18 and discarded. With the tinted disk 20 facing and in centered alignment with lamp lens 15, it and the border area 19 of sheet 18 are pressed against the lens 15, as well as against the surrounding area of lamp bezel 16. The ready flexibility of parts 18 and 20 enables the circular dishlike yet convexed contour of lens and bezel to be accommodated as the unit is put in place, and the transparent nature of sheet 18 detracts in minimum measure from the appearance of the lamp. When the unit has served its use, it is peeled off with the same ease as its application and discarded.

headlight having an exposed glass lamp lens comprising a transparent, colorless and flexible mounting sheet element of continuous rectangular outline having a centrally located circular inner zone of a diameter which is less than the side-toside rectangular dimensions of said sheet element and an outer zone extending laterally outwardly of and completely surrounding said inner zone, a pressure sensitive adhesive applied to one side of said mounting sheet element to completely cover both of said zones, a transparent and flexible circular antiglare disc panel tinted in a low wavelength color and having a diameter substantially less than the side-to-side dimensions of said mounting sheet element and equal to the diameter of the inner zone of said mounting sheet element, said disc panel element being superimposed over and secured throughout its entire area to the adhesive side of said mounting sheet element in the area of said inner zone, and a flexible metallic foil masking element of rectangular outline and of the same size as said mounting sheet element, said metallic foil masking element being superimposed over said one side of the mounting sheet element and adhesively secured to the outer zone on said one side of the mounting sheet element in a fixed covering relation therewith, said metallic foil masking element being removable from said mounting sheet element prior to applying said mounting sheet element and said disc panel element to the headlight, with said disc panel element and the inner zone of said mounting sheet element fitting over and covering the entire exposed area of the lamp lens and being secured to the headlight by means of the adhesive on said outer zone of said mounting sheet element. 

1. A disposable antifog device for an automotive vehicle headlight having an exposed glass lamp lens comprising a transparent, colorless and flexible mounting sheet element of continuous rectangular outline having a centrally located circular inner zone of a diameter which is less than the side-toside rectangular dimensions of said sheet element and an outer zone extending laterally outwardly of and completely surrounding said inner zone, a pressure sensitive adhesive applied to one side of said mounting sheet element to completely cover both of said zones, a transparent and flexible circular antiglare disc panel tinted in a low wavelength color and having a diameter substantially less than the side-to-side dimensions of said mounting sheet element and equal to the diameter of the inner zone of said mounting sheet element, said disc panel element being superimposed over and secured throughout its entire area to the adhesive side of said mounting sheet element in the area of said inner zone, and a flexible metallic foil masking element of rectangular outline and of the same size as said mounting sheet element, said metallic foil masking element being superimposed over said one side of the mounting sheet element and adhesively secured to the outer zone on said one side of the mounting sheet element in a fixed covering relation therewith, said metallic foil masking element being removable from said mounting sheet element prior to applying said mounting sheet element and said disc panel element to the headlight, with said disc panel element and the inner zone of said mounting sheet element fitting over and covering the entire exposed area of the lamp lens and being secured to the headlight by means of the adhesive on said outer zone of said mounting sheet element. 